Download Assessing the origin of Neotropical mountain dung

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Assessing the origin of Neotropical mountain dung
beetle assemblages (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae): the
comparative influence of vertical and horizontal
colonization
•
•
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Federico Escobar1,2,3,
Jorge M. Lobo4* and
Gonzalo Halffter1
1
Departamento de Ecología y Comportamiento Animal, Instituto de Ecología, AC,
Xalapa, Veracruz, México,
2
Programa de Inventarios de Biodiversidad, Instituto Humboldt, Santafé de Bogotá,
Colombia,
3
Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, 0002 Dierkunde
Building, Pretoria, South Africa and
4
Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva, Museo Nacional de Ciencias
Naturales (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
[Figures and tables at the bottom of the document]
Abstract
Aims The fauna of mountains and their surrounding regions are likely to be influenced
principally by two biological processes: horizontal colonization along similar altitudinal
levels by elements originating from lineages inhabiting higher latitudes; and vertical
colonization by lineages from the same latitude, but at lower altitudes. We examine
whether the expected patterns derived from the latter process can be observed in
mountain dung beetle assemblages. Specifically, we study the variation in species
composition and richness with altitude in five regions spanning elevation gradients,
analysing whether the altitudinal rates of change in the number of species and genera
differ, and whether beta-diversity scores for adjacent sites in each altitudinal gradient are
different for species and genera.
Location Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes.
Methods Field work was carried out in 1997–99 at 27 sites in five regions with elevation
gradients, with 10–32 pitfall traps placed in each site. For each altitudinal level the
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numbers of species and genera were analysed with respect to altitude, and the slope of the
linear regression between these variables was calculated. The slope of the curve of the
altitude against the cumulative number of species and genera was also calculated for each
altitudinal gradient to describe the compositional change between adjacent sites (beta
diversity). Species and generic slopes were compared using analysis of covariance. The
turnover of species along each altitudinal gradient was measured using presence/absence
data and Cody's beta-diversity index between adjacent pairs of sites. A cluster analysis
was used to detect faunistically homogeneous groups of localities.
Results Species richness always decreased with altitude, although the slopes did not
differ significantly from zero. The number of genera also decreased with increasing
altitude, but generally at a significantly slower rate than for species. Variation in the
species beta-diversity scores between altitudinal levels did not follow a homogeneous
pattern in the different regions. Two main altitudinal groups of sites with a boundary c.
1500–1750 m a.s.l. can be detected with respect to faunistic similarity. Low- and midaltitude sites are inhabited by all of the genera (19) and 80% of all species collected.
Eight genera and 61 species (c. 60% of the total) are unable to inhabit high-altitude sites,
and only 20 species appear to be exclusive to these high-altitude environments (> 2000 m
a.s.l.).
Main conclusions The dominant processes explaining dung beetle composition in the
high north-eastern Andean mountains are probably those of vertical colonization. The
limited role of horizontal colonization processes, or colonization from northern or
southern lineages, could be a consequence of the isolation and recent geological origin of
these mountains.
Introduction
It has long been recognized that some of the biota that currently occur in temperate and
tropical mountains are physiognomically similar to groups that inhabit higher latitudes,
and that changes in the assemblages with altitude are equivalent to latitudinal changes
(von Humboldt, 1805; Merriam, 1894; Flenley, 1979; Stevens, 1992). Biogeographers
have now established that behind this general pattern of similarity lies an evolutionary
process tied to the recent climatic cycles of the Pleistocene and the associated disruption
of the assemblages that co-evolved and persisted for millions of years (Brown &
Lomolino, 1998; Hewitt, 2000). Owing to this process, the mountainous biota of some
low-latitude regions may be phylogenetically related to that inhabiting high-latitude
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biomes (Vuilleumier & Simberloff, 1980; Brown, 1995). However, when low-latitude
mountain areas are disconnected or isolated from the temperate regions to the north and
the south of them, the possibility of dispersal by lineages from these regions may be
impeded, resulting in a tropical mountain biota with a low species richness that is
phylogenetically related to the biota of surrounding lowlands (Janzen, 1967; Brown &
Lomolino, 1998; Channell & Lomolino, 2000).
Taking these ideas into account, studies of the altitudinal variation in dung beetle species
richness and community composition around the world have proposed two non-mutually
exclusive processes to explain the origins of mountain fauna, the patterns of species
richness and variation in composition across altitude: horizontal colonization by elements
originating from lineages inhabiting higher latitudes; and vertical colonization by
lineages inhabiting the same latitude but at lower altitudes (Lobo & Halffter, 2000 and
references therein). These processes represent the two primary reactions that species can
have to changes in environmental conditions: spatial adaptation, which involves shifts in
their distribution (Hengeveld, 1997); or morpho-ecological adaptation, involving local
adaptation to new conditions (Moritz et al., 2000). The effects of these processes are
comparable with the biogeographical consequences of phylogenetic niche conservatism
and niche evolution concepts (Wiens & Donoghue, 2004), and can help explain the two
main types of endemism: allochthonous endemism (the reduction of a formerly larger
range); and autochthonous endemism (local speciation).
These processes would be expected to differ not only in their consequences, but also in
the spatial and temporal scales on which they operate. Horizontal colonization assumes
the geographical displacement of taxa or of their ancestors in relatively recent geological
times, and would generate both a clear pattern of altitudinal substitution between higherlevel taxa with different evolutionary histories, and an attenuated gradient of reduction in
species richness with altitude, because the decrease of species richness with altitude is
attenuated by the incorporation of species from distant regions. In contrast, vertical
colonization suggests a lower degree of regional dispersal of taxa but a higher relevance
of long term speciation processes. In this case, the elevational substitution pattern
detected would be lower, but the decrease in species richness would be greater.
As in some European mountain regions (Martín-Piera et al., 1992; Jay-Robert et al.,
1997), the Mexican Transition Zone exemplifies horizontal colonization processes, as
high-altitude communities are dominated by mountainous Palaeo-American and Nearctic
species belonging to genera with diversification centres in the Holarctic region, whereas
lowland assemblages are dominated by Neotropical elements (Halffter, 1976; Halffter
et al., 1995; Lobo & Halffter, 2000). The horizontal colonization pattern would then be
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due to the southward shift of northern lineages that have taken place in response to
climate changes (Halffter, 1976; Elias, 1994), facilitated by the north–south orientation of
North American mountain ranges (Halffter, 1976; Lobo & Halffter, 2000; Escobar et al.,
2005), whereas only a minor role is played by speciation and adaptive evolutionary
changes resulting from the isolation and evolutionary divergence after these colonization
events (Cruzan & Templeton, 2000; Hewitt, 2000). In contrast, vertical colonization
dominates the expected pattern of species richness and variation in composition observed
in some island dung beetle assemblages of south-eastern Asia (Hanski, 1983; Hanski &
Niemelä, 1990; Hanski & Krikken, 1991).
There is no empirical evidence about the role of vertical colonization and its
hypothesized effects on species richness and compositional patterns in continental areas.
Evidently, the relative importance of both processes depends on the orientation and
location of the mountains, and on their degree of isolation and biogeographical history, as
these characteristics greatly influence the refuge and 'corridor' capacity of mountain areas
(Rickart, 2001). In this study, we examine five Neotropical altitudinal gradients between
1000 and 2250 m a.s.l. in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes, and determine
whether patterns supposedly derived from vertical colonization can be observed, as they
are relatively isolated both from northern and southern ranges. Assuming that when the
mountain fauna is derived primarily from vertical colonization processes, the
compositional and richness variation with altitude should be a consequence of the
turnover of species belonging to the same phylogenetic lineages, we examine specifically
whether the altitudinal rates of change in the numbers of species and genera are different,
and whether beta diversity for adjacent sites on each altitudinal gradient differs for
species or genera.
Methods
Study area and sampling design
A detailed description of the area and sampling procedures is presented by Escobar et al.
(2005). Briefly, the study was carried out on the eastern slope of the Eastern Cordillera in
the Colombian Andes (between 00°28' N, 77°17' W and 00°23' N, 72°23' W; Fig. 1), a
south-to-north mountain range that separates the territory into large lowland regions (the
Amazonian and Orinoquian regions to the east and the Chocó region to the west). Field
work was carried out between February 1997 and November 1999 in five areas (Fig. 1).
After dividing each area into six 250-m-interval transects, between 1000 and 2500 m
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a.s.l., 27 sites were sampled with 330 traps. At each site, 10–32 pitfall traps (12.2 ± 4.8;
mean ± SD; traps 1000 mL capacity, 13 cm deep, 11 cm diameter) were placed in the
forest 25 m apart and baited with 50 mL of human dung. Each trap was left in the field
for 48 h. A total of 7894 specimens belonging to 101 species were captured. An
evaluation of data completeness using accumulation curves showed that a detectable
asymptote was reached in many sites (Escobar et al., 2005), and that in 21 sites (78%)
> 80% of species appeared to be collected, although in the remaining six sites the mean
value of the estimates was 76%. The nonparametric richness estimates indicated that
between 75% and 86% of the expected maximum number of species for the entire
territory were collected (Escobar et al., 2005).
Data analysis
For each sampling area, the elevational change in number of species and the number of
genera were analysed. Curves for the cumulative numbers of observed species and genera
against altitude were calculated for each area to describe the compositional change
between adjacent sites (beta diversity). The slope of the linear regression of the altitude
of sites against the cumulative number of species or genera was calculated for each area.
These slopes were compared using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to test whether the
effect of taxonomic category (species or genus) was statistically significant.
The turnover of species along the altitudinal gradient in each area was measured using
presence/absence data and by calculating Cody's beta-diversity index (Cody, 1993)
between adjacent pairs of sites (βco) as:
where a is the total
number of species or genera that occur in any pair of adjacent sites along a transect, and b
and c are the number of exclusive species or genera (those that occur in each site but not
in the adjacent one). This index was selected from the large number of beta-diversity
measures available because it is one of eight measures recently recommended (Koleff
et al., 2003) for its capacity to focus on compositional differences rather than on species
richness, and for the higher scores it gives when the proportion of shared species is low
and the percentages of species lost and gained are similar. As beta-diversity indices do
not reveal whether the values are produced by a gain or loss in the number of species, we
also calculated the number of species or genera gained and lost between neighbouring
sites. A triangular Q-mode similarity matrix of sites was computed from the rectangular
matrix of species abundance on each site using the percentage dissimilarity measure (PD;
Ludwig & Reynolds, 1988). To define groups of sites with similar composition, cluster
analysis was carried out using the Ward method as clustering strategy, as it allows
detection of clusters that are relatively homogeneous with respect to all the variables
(Legendre & Legendre, 1998). Significant clusters were estimated by randomly assigning
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the cases (500 random trials) to a given initial partition by a k-means procedure, to
improve the Euclidean sum of squares (ESS), selecting the solution with the lowest ESS
(Wishart, 2000; http://www.clustan.com).
Results
Species richness of dung beetles decreased with altitude in all five areas, at a rate varying
between 3.4 and 13.6 species per 1000 m altitude, but with a general increase in the
number of species at intermediate elevations (Fig. 2). The estimated number of species
using three different nonparametric richness estimators (the incidence-based coverage
estimator, Chao1 and first-order jackknife; Colwell & Coddington, 1994), follow the
same tendency as that of observed richness (Fig. 2; cf. Escobar et al., 2005). The number
of genera also decreased with increasing altitude (slopes from −2.57 to −6.0 genera per
1000 m). The rate of decrease in the number of genera was generally lower, without an
increase at intermediate altitudes (Fig. 2), suggesting that the intermediate peak in species
richness is probably the result of an increase in species of the same genera that inhabit
adjacent altitudes.
The slopes of the cumulative number of species varied from 8.6 to 22.0 species per
1000 m, with the lowest slope occurring in the northernmost elevational gradient; slopes
for the number of genera were significantly lower, varying from 1.6 to 3.6 genera per
1000 m (Table 1; Fig. 2). Thus the addition of new species with increasing altitude is
much higher than the accumulation rate of genera, suggesting that species that appear
with increasing altitude generally belong to the same genera that inhabited lower
altitudinal levels.
Variations in species beta diversity (βco) between altitudinal levels do not follow a
homogeneous pattern in the different regions (Fig. 3), although there is a general increase
in beta diversity between sites at the two highest altitudes. However, these higher βco
scores are mainly due to the loss of species, except in the case of the northern altitudinal
gradient (site E), where the lack of data for the sites at 1500 and 1750 m a.s.l. produces
an apparent increase in species turnover rates. The beta-diversity scores for generic
replacement (mean ± SE: 0.23 ± 0.04) are significantly lower than for species
(0.49 ± 0.05; Wilcoxon matched pairs, Z = 3.26, P = 0.001), but show the same general
pattern as that observed for species (Fig. 4), so the higher beta scores are mainly due to
the loss of genera between altitudinal levels.
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As occurs when a presence/absence matrix is used (Escobar et al., 2005), two main
altitudinal groups of sites with a boundary around 1500–1750 m a.s.l. can be identified
according to their faunistic similarity (Fig. 5). Mid-altitude sites harbour all the genera
collected (19) and 80% of total species. Eight genera and 61 species (around 60% of
total) did not inhabit high-altitude sites, and only 20 species appear to be exclusive to
these high-altitude environments (Table 2). These belong to the genera Bdelyrus (one
species), Canthidium (three species), Canthon (one), Cryptocanthon (two), Deltochilum
(five), Dichotomius (one), Ontherus (one), Scybalocanthon (one) and Uroxys (five).
Examining the distribution of the two genera with more exclusive species in the group of
high-altitude sites, closely related species appear to be segregated both with respect to
altitude and between the different mountain regions (Fig. 6).
Discussion
The decline in species richness with altitude is common, but altitudinal patterns for
different groups vary (Rahbek, 1995; Patterson et al., 1998). Elevational patterns in
diversity have been related to many contemporary environmental variables (Huston,
1994), but the underlying causal mechanisms behind these correlations remain elusive. It
is likely that current patterns are greatly influenced by past environmental changes, and
present-day environmental conditions only allow their maintenance (Brown, 2001; Davis
& Shaw, 2001). That is why, rather than identifying the environmental variables
correlated with the species richness and variations in faunistic composition, we have
sought to explain how mountain species have been able to inhabit these environmentally
favourable regions. In our study the results of the accumulation curves, the variation in
beta-diversity scores, and the faunistic similarity between sites all suggest that the
dominant processes able to explain the observed altitudinal patterns of dung beetle
assemblages in the eastern Andean mountains are those of the vertical colonization
model. However, it should be taken into account that the present study comprises only a
portion of the altitudinal gradient (between 1000 and 2500 m), which suggests that
caution is needed in proposing generalizations.
As for dung beetles of other tropical regions with high and isolated mountains (Davis
et al., 1999), the distinction between low- and high-elevation fauna is well established in
the Andes, as is the distinction between lower- and upper-montane fauna (Patterson et al.,
1998; Kessler et al., 2001). Although few species are added as altitude increases, and
most of the turnover at high-altitude sites is due to the occurrence of a small number of
species belonging to the same genera collected at lower altitudes, there are some
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examples indicative of possible in situ speciation, probably resulting from the local
adaptation of populations coming from the lowlands. The current spatial segregation
among presumed sister species, both between altitudes and between the different
mountain regions (genera: Deltochilum, Uroxys and Cryptocanthon), suggests that the
complex geological and climatic history of the north Andean mountains could also have
favoured the isolation and speciation of populations. Additional phylogeographical
studies are needed to delimit the relevance of speciation processes across elevational
gradients, and also across the different mountain chains. The strong environmental
gradient that a mountain represents can result in adaptive divergence and speciation
(gradient model of speciation; Moritz et al., 2000), while the occurrence of related
species in different mountain regions is better explained by a traditional vicariance model
of speciation.
Recent evidence suggests that climatic oscillations during the Plio-Pleistocene played a
minor role in generating vertebrate species in the lowland tropics, perhaps because
species responded mainly by migration rather than by adaptive differentiation (Moritz
et al., 2000). However, these climatic changes are frequently mentioned as a main source
of speciation when the aim is to explain the current distribution of Andean biota (frogs:
Duellman, 1979; plants: Gentry, 1982; butterflies: Descimon, 1986; birds: Vuilleumier,
1986). Thus species found at high elevations in tropical America would be recent and
geographically limited, possibly indicating the existence of an association between
modern diversification processes and recent geological activity (Hewitt, 2001). At least
for some vertebrate groups, molecular studies indicate that the tropical Andes contain a
higher proportion of young species (Fjeldså, 1994; da Silva & Patton, 1998), probably
owing to the environmental heterogeneity that emerged after the uplift of the Andes
beginning in the Miocene (18 Ma), and the speciation processes that occurred during the
Plio-Pleistocene glacial periods (García-Moreno et al., 1999; García-Paris et al., 2000).
The rapid shifts in the climate and associated changes in the composition and distribution
of vegetation during the last two glacial cycles would have generated sufficient
opportunity for speciation (Moritz et al., 2000 and references therein).
A clear example of the role of elevation and isolation in the Andean mountains is
provided by Cryptocanthon, a genus for which one species occurs in each mountain
region. According to Cook (2002), there are 35 species of Cryptocanthon, 23 of which
have a narrow geographical distribution occurring at elevations above 1000 m a.s.l.
(Cook, 2002). This high level of endemism is closely related to the loss of the ability to
fly. Flightlessness is unusual among dung beetles, because most species need fly to reach
ephemeral food resources such as fresh dung (Halffter & Matthews, 1966). The tendency
towards a reduction of metathoracic wings in mountain habitats is a pattern that occurs
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repeatedly in other Coleoptera (Carabidae; Darlington, 1943). These features are
suggestive of old taxa that are phylogenetically isolated within their respective lineages,
and could indicate a close adaptation to the environment and a relatively long residence
time (Ball & Shpeley, 2000). So beetles with a tendency towards flightlessness, such as
Cryptocanthon, have been profoundly affected by the repeated climatic disruptions of the
Plio-Pleistocene (Cook, 2002).
Our results show that these Neotropical high-altitude dung beetle assemblages are poor in
species, but are singular and distinctive. As found in other tropical studies (Lobo &
Halffter, 2000), the environmental changes associated with increasing altitude generate a
notable decrease in species richness and also a slight turnover in the composition of
assemblages, mainly due to the loss of species. This probably occurs because
Scarabaeinae dung beetles are a monophyletic group (Scholtz, 1990) mostly comprised of
warm-adapted species, for which the vertical colonization of these high-mountain
environments by lineages distributed at lower altitudes would have been very difficult
(Lobo & Halffter, 2000). Other restrictions to colonizing mountain environments include
the general shape of mountains, where area decreases and isolation increases with
increasing elevation, resulting in high extinction rates and low colonization rates. Both
factors would contribute to a decrease in diversity with altitude (Brown, 2001). Although
our collecting efforts did not include sampling above 2250 m a.s.l., studies carried out on
different mountains in the Colombian Andes (Amat-García et al., 1997; Medina et al.,
2002) confirm the predominant role of vertical colonization, dominated by species
belonging to widely distributed genera with a long evolutionary history in lowlands:
species such as Dichotomius, Ontherus and Uroxys.
In contrast to findings for the Mexican Transition Zone (Halffter, 1987; Lobo & Halffter,
2000), where the north–south orientation of the mountain ranges facilitates the arrival of
northern elements, in the northern Andes a lack of horizontal colonization could be a
result of the isolation and recent origin of these mountains relative to more northern and
southern mountain chains. We suggest that these mountains are being colonized, without
much success, by the surrounding Neotropical fauna. However, the presence of the genus
Onthophagus in South America could have resulted from the horizontal colonization of
elements that have recently penetrated the lowlands, such as species of the clypeatus
group. American Onthophagus lineages probably derive from Oriental or Palaearctic
taxa, although African lineages appear to be basal in the phylogeny of the genus (Emlen
et al., 2005). Currently the distribution of this genus is restricted mostly to forest below
2000 m a.s.l. (Zunino & Halffter, 1997), with only a few species successfully colonizing
the high Andean mountains.
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The concepts of vertical and horizontal colonization allow us to explain the altitudinal
turnover in fauna and, to a lesser extent, the changes in species richness along the
elevational gradient, but principally aim to elucidate the role played by historical
dispersal and speciation in the formation of mountain assemblages. Integrating large
spatial and temporal processes to contemporary patterns, vertical and horizontal
colonization concepts provide a theoretical tool for understanding the processes behind
the dissimilarity of the altitudinal variation in assemblages, as well as the differences in
the rate of species richness decrease with altitude. As Pielou (1979) asks: 'Does the
differential migration of species in response to change reinforce or obscure the zonation
caused by the zoned climates on a rotating sphere warmed by a small, distant sun?' We
believe that dispersal expanding the geographical ranges of species can reinforce the
observed biotic zonation in some situations when physical connections are likely. In the
case of high northern Andean mountain dung beetles, this does not appear to have been
possible.
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Figures and tables
Figure 1 The Colombian Andes and geographical locations of the five altitudinal regions
sampled (white circles) in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes (dark grey).
A = Putumayo (00°28' N, 77°17' W); B = Los Picachos (02°47' N, 74°51' W);
C = Farallones de Medina (05°35' N, 73°25' W); D = Alto Río Cusiana (05°23' N,
72°42' W); E = Tamá National Park (07°07' N, 72°14' W). The two main tropical lowland
regions are also indicated. Cells represent a 2° grid in latitude/longitude co-ordinates.
openUP – February 2007
Figure 2 Elevational variation in number of species or genera (solid circles) and
cumulative number of species and genera (squares) in each region. Sites as in Fig. 1.
Crosses represent mean number of species estimated by three common nonparametric
richness estimators that use species-by-sample data (Escobar et al., 2005).
openUP – February 2007
Figure 3 Changes in beta diversity (βco) for species along each elevational gradient (line).
Beta diversity was calculated between two adjacent altitudinal levels. Grey bars, number
of species lost; dark bars, number of species gained.
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Figure 4 Changes in beta diversity (βco) for genera along each elevational gradient (line).
Beta diversity was calculated between two adjacent altitudinal levels. Grey bars, number
of species lost; dark bars, number of species gained.
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Figure 5 Cluster analysis of sites (27) using the Ward method as the linkage rule and
Euclidean distance as the measure of similarity. A triangular Q-mode similarity matrix of
sites was computed from the rectangular matrix of species abundance on each site using
the percentage dissimilarity measure (PD; Ludwig & Reynolds, 1988). Below, locations
of the two main clusters of sites derived. Sites in the dendrogram are represented by the
combination of letters (Fig. 1) and altitudes (m).
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Figure 6 Spatial distribution for the genera Deltochilum and Uroxys along each
elevational gradient. Letters represent the sites as in Figure 1. Note the apparent
elevational segregation with some species exclusive to mid and high altitude mountains.
Deltochilum (Dm = D. mexicanum; Dt = D. teselatum; Dh = D. hypponum; D1 = D. sp. 1;
D2 = D. sp. 2; D3 = D. sp. 3; D4 = D. sp. 4; D5 = D. sp. 5; D6 = D. sp. 6; D7 = D. sp. 7;
D8 = D. sp. 8; D9 = D. sp. 9). Uroxys (U1 = U. sp. 1; U2 = U. sp. 2; U3 = U. sp. 3;
U4 = U. sp. 4; U5 = U. sp. 5; U6 = U. sp. 6; U7 = U. sp. 7; U8 = U. sp. 8; U9 = U. sp. 9;
U10 = U. sp. 10; U11 = U. sp. 11; U12 = U. sp. 12; U13 = U. sp. 13; U14 = U. sp. 14).
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openUP – February 2007
Table 1 Slopes of variation in the cumulative number of dung beetle species and genera
by altitude for the five mountain regions (see Fig. 1)
Region
Species
Genus
F
P
A
20.11**
1.60**
F(1,9) = 54.66
< 0.001
B
22.00**
3.60*
F(1,7) = 36.56
< 0.001
C
14.97**
1.71*
F(1,9) = 34.93
< 0.001
D
20.46**
3.09*
F(1,9) = 32.61
< 0.001
E
8.57*
1.71 ns
F(1,5) = 17.10
0.009
F, ANCOVA results indicate whether the effect of taxonomic category (species or
genus) is statistically significant for these slope scores: *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01;
***P < 0.001.
Table 2 Number of genera, species (mean ± SD) and number of shared species of dung
beetle according to cluster analysis (group I, sites < 1500–1750; group II, sites > 1750–
2000 m a.s.l.)
Genera
Species
Mean
Mean
Number number per Number number per
Group
site
site
I
19
8.5 ± 1.6
81
Shared
Genera
(number)
14.5 ± 3.8
8
II
11
4.7 ± 1.8
40
Species
(number)
7 ± 3.4
20